What a small product team should document

Small teams do not need a document for every conversation. They do need a durable record of consequential decisions: the problem, the options considered, the chosen direction, and the cost accepted with it.

Recording the reason prevents the same debate from restarting without new evidence and helps a future teammate understand why an apparently unusual constraint exists.

Documentation decays when it lives far from the artifact it describes. Product rules should sit near the relevant flow, technical decisions near the code, and operating procedures where the responsible team already works.

Use links and short summaries rather than copying the same explanation into several tools. One maintained source is more useful than several complete-looking sources that disagree.

The goal is not to preserve every detail. It is to give the next person enough context to make a good decision without reconstructing the entire project.

Review documentation when the product changes, remove obsolete instructions, and mark unresolved questions clearly. A small, current record creates more leverage than a large archive.